Many of the vintage japanese fabrics i'm currently handling in preparation for the workshop have been dyed with Indigo, the colours vary greatly, some have been lightened by sunlight maybe or may have not been re-dipped in the indigo dye to get the intense blue characteristic of the indigo colour.

There is much information about Indigo from books and from the wonderful world wide web and it was whilst flitting from place to place on here that i became aware that there was mystery and folklore surrounding this "Magical Dye".

(photo from http://photos.ye-travels.org/keyword/indigo;guizhou/i-JR9vJ9n)

I could use up ten more blog posts to talk about the magic of indigo but 'Feature Friday' is not about blinding you with information (or science), i want it to be about drawing attention to things/people/processes that i find interesting or has influenced my work and my life. You may find it interesting, you may not and that's ok too.

For those of you who are, i reccommend "Blue Alchemy: Stories of Indigo". It's a documentary by film maker Mary Lance. This website shows a trailer, you have to buy the DVD, but it's well worth it.